Verstappen worried about Red Bull’s 2018 performance

Following an interview with Ziggo Sport Totaal, Max Verstappen has revealed that he is not only worried about Red Bull Racing’s 2017 performance but is also concerned about the team next season in 2018.

These worries come off the back of a very disappointing race weekend for Verstappen at the Canadian Grand Prix, where the young Dutchman retired on the 11th lap of the race following a mechanical failure whilst running in second place between the two Mercedes drivers.

2017 has been “completely crap” Verstappen insisted, and with engine supplier Renault announcing that this year’s power unit will not be significantly updated for the rest of 2017, F1’s youngest race winner continued to express his doubts:

"I'm worried, also for the direction for next year," he said. "I want to win and I absolutely think this team can. You can see we have improved the car a lot. But the power is yet to come. And right now, as you may have read, there will be nothing more (in 2017). Updates were promised but there have been few."

Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, responded to this criticism to excuse the 19-year-old: "He knows how hard the team is pushing to make the car better. He'll see the big picture. We were racing against a Mercedes (in Canada) and we beat Ferrari. Max hasn't had the result but it's still a long season. His time will come."

So far in 2017, Red Bull have had an underwhelming season, only managing three podium finishes in the first seven races of the season. With the new 2017 technical regulations and aerodynamic changes theoretically favouring the former champions of the sport who once dominated Formula 1 from 2010-2013, Red Bull are yet to see a competitive weekend where they have been able to challenge F1’s frontrunners.

When the F1 circus heads to Azerbaijan and Austria in the coming weeks, it is hard to imagine that Red Bull will see an improvement in performance, with Horner already admitting that the team will struggle in coming races.

Chris Soulsby